Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The final hours of testimony in the Della Olds murder case consisted of one more last-ditch attempt by the prosecution to show that the young widow was herself a drunk, as well as a proficient markswoman (she had once gone target shooting at Natatorium Park). Most of this testimony was disallowed by the judge as going beyond the bounds of rebuttal testimony.

Instead, the state was reduced to trying to show that the late Dr. W.H. Olds was not quite as prodigious a boozer as had been portrayed.

A man who once stayed at the Olds house said Dr. Olds got drunk only “once every three or four months,” and the binges lasted “only three days to a week.”

Then, in another awkward attempt to rehabilitate the late doctor’s image, his son (and Della’s stepson) took the stand to testify that his father was “even more considerate of Mrs. Olds when drunk than at other times.”

The closing arguments and the judge’s instructions to the jury were scheduled for the next day’s session.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1859: Big Ben, the great bell inside the famous London clock tower, chimed for the first time. … 1937: American composer and pianist George Gershwin died at a Los Angeles hospital of a brain tumor; he was 38.